A Beijing tech company just bought Grindr

The Chinese market for swiping left and right is growing

By Amy HawkinsPosted: Thursday June 1 2017 11:49AM

China may not be a paragon of gay rights in Asia, but Chinese companies sure know where the money's at. A company called Beijing Kunlun Tech has just bought Grindr for a whopping 1 billion RMB. In fact, that's just the price it paid for 38 percent percent of the company, having paid about half that to buy 62 percent of the company last year.

It's often the case that businesses cotton on to the economic power of minorities before governments do. Gay marriage is still illegal in China, but there's a huge market for LGBT dating apps, Grindr being the original.

Grindr's not the only gay dating app out there, but it is one of the most famous. Blued, a popular Chinese dating app, claims to have a similar number of users in China, and has a similar propensity for headless torso shots.

While the men have Grindr and Blued, the LGBT dating app scene for women is a bit less developed. Our favourite is one called Brenda, which sadly never really took off in China despite it's incredibly sexy name. For now, it seems as though the money is chasing the males.